Could this be the whole reason?
Are you a longtime viewer of various soaps? Do you remember the days when you couldn’t wait to see the next episode and realize that while you still enjoy your stories, they don’t provide that same feeling you remember from years ago? This may be why.
Soaps — No Longer A Woman’s Medium
In the same time period as the #MeToo movement and the loss of women’s autonomy over their own health, an amusing development has taken place. The only form of entertainment where women were in charge on set as producers, directors, head writers, and executive producers—a form mostly viewed by women—has been taken over by men. There are men executive producers and male head writers on every soap opera now being produced (or maybe two).
Not that guys can’t make gripping drama for women, mind you. Of course they can, as William J. Bell amply demonstrated, first at Days of our Lives and later by co-creating The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless…with his wife and co-creator, Lee Phillip Bell. He by no means stood alone among successful men. However, they were not acting alone.
If there is one thing we have learned over the years, it is that representation and being present in the room where the action takes place important. Is it just a coincidence that guys who seem more domineering, mansplaining, and aggressive than the romantic heroes we recall populate soap opera towns? Maybe. Our perspectives can be very dissimilar, which is why John Gray’s book Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus was so well-read. It might be very different between what men believe women want and what they actually want.
Hamilton Finn (Michael Easton) and Liz Webber from General Hospital (Rebecca Herbst). The creative team seems to view Finn as a hero for trying to protect the woman he loves from a ghost from her past. Numerous women have criticized him for being domineering and not respecting her boundaries, which she explicitly expressed, according to a Twitter search. Read the roommates; your viewers won’t be viewing this as a great romance. Just as Gregory Chase, Finn’s father (Gregory Harrison), seems more like he is mansplaining journalism to Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn), his banter with her doesn’t satisfy. Female viewers won’t find this to be appealing. Actually, it isn’t.
This author first became painfully aware of this distinction when she was considerably younger. One male development executive for soaps was attempting to describe what, in his opinion, was the most romantic moment on the soaps at the time. He cited a scene from The Bold and the Beautiful in which Taylor Hayes was the only woman Eric Forrester (John McCook) desired out of the five women competing for his attention (then Hunter Tylo). There it was. His response was that. I was so shocked that I chose to remain silent (a rare occurrence, as anyone who knows me in real life will attest), but I did ask others if I was entirely wrong in believing that this was so terrible. One of them questioned was a well regarded soap opera performer who had written for daytime. He rolled his eyes when he heard what was said and made it obvious (though perhaps in more vivid terms) that it was a male fantasy and not a female one. He was not only aware of the distinction, but also of the issue it raised.
Do the current governments recognize this? They don’t seem to exist. The majority of viewers are still female, and they want to get away from a society that is become more and more unfriendly to them. We need to see (at least a few) men who are morally upright, helpful, and hoping for a romantic relationship. For dramatic stakes to rise and fall, for feelings to be expressed, and for a sense of community, we need to see tales that matter. We want to imagine how life may be in a better world. not a daily reminder of the injustice we observe everywhere.
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